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Japanese · Japan

Japanese Amanatto and Higashi: Sugar-Preserved Bean Confections

Amanatto (甘納豆) are beans — typically kuromame (black soybeans), shiro-ingen (white kidney beans), azuki, or edamame — cooked to tenderness and then slowly glazed by repeated immersion in progressively concentrated sugar syrup until each bean is individually coated in a thin, crystalline sugar shell. The process requires patience: the beans must first be cooked without breaking the skin, then cooled, then progressively introduced to warmer, more concentrated sugar solutions to allow the sugar to penetrate the bean's structure without collapsing it. The finished product is a bean that is sweet, glossy, and yields to a soft, moist interior — a refined simplicity that represents the Meiji period's embrace of refined sugar technology. Amanatto are frequently used as toppings for kakigori (shaved ice), mochi, and zenzai (sweet azuki soup). They are among the most labour-intensive wagashi to produce properly and have experienced declining domestic production as artisanal makers age without successors. Higashi (干菓子, literally 'dry sweets') is the broader category encompassing all dry-style wagashi including rakugan (covered separately), also including konpeitō (sugar-cast multicolour star candies, Portuguese-derived), and ochoko-gashi (tiny bowl-shaped confections used at tea ceremony).

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ServesFour portions
Sourced0of 3 in BC
Cook
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I

The Market List

The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.

300 g
kuromame (Tamba black soybeans) or azuki, or shiro-ingen (white kidney beans)
sorted and rinsed; Tamba black soybeans preferred for their large size and thin skin
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
For the progressive sugar syrup
1 litre
water
divided across stages
Your own market
900 g
refined white sugar
divided; used in increasing concentrations from 30° Brix to 70–80° Brix across multiple stages
Your own market
II

The Method

1
Soak the beans overnight in cold water. Drain, cover with fresh cold water, and bring to a gentle simmer. Cook at a low, steady simmer until the beans are exactly al dente — slightly firm, with no raw starch at the centre, but with the skins entirely intact. Test by pressing a single bean between finger and thumb: it yields with gentle resistance and does not split. Drain carefully and cool to room temperature.
2
Prepare a dilute syrup at 30° Brix by dissolving approximately 150 g of the sugar in 500 ml of water over low heat, stirring until fully clear. Allow this syrup to cool completely to room temperature before use. Immerse the cooled beans in the cold syrup and leave undisturbed for 24 hours. The syrup must be cool at first contact — warm syrup at this stage causes bean cell structure to collapse.
3
This is the stage on which the dish lives or dies. Drain the beans, reserving the syrup. Dissolve additional sugar into the syrup to raise the concentration by approximately 10° Brix. Allow the enriched syrup to cool fully to room temperature. Return the beans to the cooled syrup. Repeat this cycle — drain, enrich, cool completely, re-immerse — every 24 hours, advancing the Brix by 10° at each stage until the syrup reaches 70–80° Brix. Do not advance while the syrup or beans retain any warmth; do not skip a rest stage. At each interval the syrup should be visibly more viscous and the beans progressively more lustrous.
4
At the final concentration stage, lift the beans individually from the syrup and arrange them on a wire rack or clean board in a single layer, ensuring no two beans touch. Leave in a cool, dry environment — not the refrigerator — until the surface dries to a thin, crystalline shell. The finished bean should be glossy and individually coated. The shell is done when it offers a brief crystalline resistance to the fingertip before the skin gives way.
5
Store in a cool, dry environment in a sealed container. Do not refrigerate without an airtight seal; ambient humidity softens the sugar coating. The finished amanatto is ready to serve as a confection, or to use as a topping for kakigori, mochi, or zenzai. The interior should be soft and moist; the shell, intact and crystalline.
III

Quality Hierarchy

01
Reserve — Tamba-region kuromame (Tamba black soybeans): large, thin-skinned, and producing an exceptionally luxurious result. Sourced from a named artisanal Kyoto producer observing the full multi-day glazing cycle.
02
Estate — Premium azuki or shiro-ingen from a known domestic Japanese grower; refined white sugar of consistent purity to allow precise Brix control at each stage.
03
Market — Quality dried kuromame or azuki from a reliable supplier; standard refined white sugar. The technique remains demanding regardless of bean provenance.
04
House — Any sound dried black soybean or kidney bean with intact skins; standard granulated sugar. Results are honest if the progressive concentration method is followed without abbreviation.
IV

Sensory Tests

◇Touch. Cooked bean yields with gentle resistance under the thumb without splitting the skin — al dente, not soft
◇Sight. Syrup at each progressive stage is visibly more viscous than the last; beans grow more lustrous with each immersion
◇Touch. Dried surface offers brief crystalline resistance to the fingertip before the bean skin gives way — the shell is set and intact
◇Sight. Finished beans are individually coated, glossy, and dry — no tackiness, no cracking at the surface
◇Where it lives or dies. The sugar concentration must be advanced in gradual increments over multiple days, with each stage cooled fully before the next: compress or rush this progression and the beans crack on the surface while remaining under-sweetened within.
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VI

What to Pour

The pairing
Nikka From The Barrel
Nikka Whisky — Miyagikyo Distillery · Miyagikyo — Nikka Distillery
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
Whisky
From British Columbia

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Without alcohol

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The whole pairing
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